Cuts could end audio news for Michigan's blind people

Aug. 26, 2013
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David Meyer, 58, of Forest Park, Ill., left, listens as the Victor Reader Stream recites the Chicago Sun Times during the National Federation of the Blind convention in Detroit, on July 3, 2009. A service used by more than 3,000 blind people in Michigan to access newspapers and magazines is to be shut off Aug. 31, 2013 after the state of Michigan cut off funding. / Andre J. Jackson, Detroit Free Press

by Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press

by Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press

LANSING, Mich. -- A service used by about 3,000 blind people in Michigan to access newspapers and magazines is to be shut off this week because the state cut funding, the provider said Monday.

The state no longer wants to pay the $52,000 annual cost of the NFB-Newsline service, which provides 24/7 free audio access to about 360 local, national and international newspapers and magazines, said Scott White, who directs the service for the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore.

Edward Rodgers II, director of Michigan's new Bureau of Services for Blind Persons, did not return a phone message. Jason Moon, a spokesman for the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, issued a brief statement late Monday suggesting the decision may not be final.

"An initial request to fund the new grant cycle was denied by the bureau," Moon said. "That denial was due to NFB's failure to provide timely and sufficient information."

Moon said the bureau "is focused on providing a diverse set of quality services to ensure that blind individuals have the opportunities they need" to get jobs and be independent. That includes access to "cutting-edge technology," Moon said.

Georgia Kitchen, who is blind and volunteers as a state coordinator of Newsline, said the service provides blind people not just with news, but with leads on jobs through classified ads and information about things going on in the community.

Losing the service will make blind people "more isolated," Kitchen said.

"I'm pretty passionate about it, because I've been using it since 1998."

The Bureau of Services for Blind Persons, along with the Commission for Blind Persons, was established last year after Gov. Rick Snyder abolished the Michigan Commission for the Blind by executive order.

White has notified about 3,100 Michigan subscribers about the planned shutoff at midnight Saturday. The service launched in 1995 and is available in all but a few states. Nearly all subscribers are blind or visually impaired, though some have other disabilities that make it difficult to read newspapers and magazines.

"A proposal for the service to continue in Michigan was sent to the director of the bureau, Mr. Ed Rodgers," but was turned down, White said in an e-mail to subscribers.

Seniors, who are used to newspapers and aren't always adept with computers, are particularly dependent on the service, said Larry Posont, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Michigan.

Posont, who was a member of the commission Snyder abolished, said its membership has been weakened through the removal of strong advocates for blind people.

Unlike the former commission, which had statutory powers, the new one serves only an advisory role.

Posont and Kitchen said there are regional radio-based services through which parts of newspapers are read aloud over the air, but those services are available only at fixed times in limited geographic areas, and those who tune in don't get to choose which articles are read.